


McBride Corral

by Rambert



Series: The radicalization of Craig Boone [4]
Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Ableist Language, Age Difference, Alcohol, American Politics, Animal Death, Banter, Bigotry & Prejudice, Canon Non-Binary Character, Canon-Typical Violence, Cussing, Dialogue Heavy, Gossip, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Independent New Vegas (Fallout), Late Night Conversations, M/M, Mojave Wasteland (Fallout), NCR | New California Republic, Novac (Fallout), POV First Person, Post-Apocalypse, Psychological Drama, Slow Burn, Spoilers, Survival, Technology, Trans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:20:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28538727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rambert/pseuds/Rambert
Summary: On their way back from HELIOS One, Boone and Casey see something strange.[As always please mind the tags. Spoilers for Screams of the Brahmin questline]
Relationships: Craig Boone/Courier (Fallout), Craig Boone/Non-Binary Courier
Series: The radicalization of Craig Boone [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2085471
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	McBride Corral

**Author's Note:**

> If this part feels extra gamey, it's because I'm reading too many Fallout wiki pages lol. But I wanted to do some plot stuff, and just worldbuild in general bc I'm obsessed with this game. 
> 
> Also if u comment with where the totally unintentional but obvious ATLA quote is in here, you win the internet :D

"Oh thank _god_ we're finally out of there!" I can't help crowing as we run out into the Mojave night away from HELIOS One.

"Pipe down you madman." Boone smirks at me as I spin around whooping and laughing.

"I can't believe you got away with that," he comments as soon as we're out of earshot of the troopers.

"They really didn't notice a damn thing. I'm glad I'm not NCR any more, that was fuckin' embarrassing."

"Awwwww go on~" I say with a shit-eating grin, still flying high from my victory.

After _hours_ of working with finnicky little parts up in that power plant up in that dimly-lit control tower with nothing but my Pip Boy flashlight and my tool kit, I'd successfully repaired the broken generator that was powering the mainframe and got the configuration console running again. Exhilarated, I'd explained to Boone that I could configure the restored power settings to prioritize the entire local grid, sending none to the Strip _or_ McCarran.

"But that's not what the NCR--"

"Shhh, shut up," I'd said excitedly, "I'm going to send the power to the people where it belongs. The NCR doesn't even know what they're sitting on here, they won't miss it."

And I'd been right-- that "Fantastic" asshole downstairs hadn't even noticed a thing. Nor had any of the NCR troopers. Ignacio Rivas had though; he shook my hand and thanked me for my "respectable decision". I'd just thought it was the right thing to do. He'd told me to look up the Followers of the Apocalypse in Freeside at the Old Mormon Fort if I ever wanted a safe place to stay in New Vegas.

For the time being, though, Boone and I had decided to just go back to Novac for the night and set out again in the morning.

"You really fuckin' did it, Case," Boone says, lightly punching my shoulder the way I've seen him do with his NCR buddies.

I laugh, fighting down a shiver from the contact. "It was your idea. I never would have gone there otherwise."

"You just needed a reason. I knew you could help people around here, and you did. Now Novac can get on the power grid."

"Yeah," I say, grinning again. "Felt really good getting that generator working. Felt even better knowing that none of my labor went to help the NCR. No offense-- wait-- I take it back! Full offense!" I crow and laugh again, checking my Pip Boy to make sure my yelling won't attract anything.

"God, are you always this annoying whenever you get to prove how smart you are?" Boone teases, but when I stick out my tongue at him he just smiles at me.

A real smile, one that actually stretches his face into a warm expression-- even barely visible in the moonlight, it's dazzling.

I nearly trip over a rock and take a faltering breath as I stumble. "Whoops. Can't do victory jumps in the Mojave apparently," I giggle.

"I can't believe you're older than me," Boone teases. "Running around like that, I'd never guess."

"Really? How old are you?"

"Twenty-six."

"Oh my god, you are a _baby_!" I cry out miserably, my voice a little too loud from my earlier antics. "I feel like a cradle robber hanging out with you now."

"You said you're over thirty, that's only four years."

"I'm thirty- _three_ , Boone. That's _seven_ years," I say, sighing. "I know I might act immature on occasion but you really are a baby compared to me."

"Knock it off, brain development stops at twenty-five," Boone says, his tone starting to prickle a little with irritation.

"There's enough actual pedophiles in the world to get mad at, don't pull that coy shit. A few years' difference doesn't matter out here in the wastes."

"Well you've got me there I suppose," I say as we near Novac. "I wasn't trying to call you immature-- I just feel so old in comparison to you, is all. I remember being twenty-six, and it feels like a lifetime ago."

"Mm. Sounds like just a part of living to me," Boone says, and I can't argue with that.

I'm totally wiped out, very much looking forward to planting face-first into my bed at the Dino Dee-Lite, but something registers on my Pip Boy up ahead in the dark. A _big_ something that isn't the Brahmins at the McBride house. It's out west of town, in the wastes.

"Boone," I whisper, gesturing to my map display. "See anything up ahead?"

"It's fucking dark, what do you think," he mutters back as he stops where I've stopped.

We both crouch down instinctively over my Pip Boy, watching the large dot-- is it human, or animal? Moving around out in the wasteland right in front of us. But we can't see it at all even in the moonlight... it's almost as if it's invisible. That's impossible though... or is it?

I've heard stories of nightkin with their Stealth Boys, but have never met one out here in the wild. In fact I've never met a super mutant out here at all. There's "Mean Son of a Bitch" over in Westside, who's pretty cool, but other than him and the radio broadcasts I can occasionally pick up from "Best Friend Tabitha" at Black Mountain, I haven't encountered any super mutants. Most people in New Vegas and the settlements seem to fear them, but some people speak of a place called Jacobstown where mutants and humans and ghouls live at peace with one another. I'd like to go there someday, if I can find the way.

As I stand still and look around, after a few seconds I notice that a patch of night in front of me seems to be... shimmering, a little. Like heat waves from the sun, but it's night time... which means a Stealth Boy!

I poke Boone in the arm and gesture excitedly to my Pip Boy, then try to point at the shimmering.

"I got it," Boone says, pulling out his rifle.

"Wait, what the fuck are you doing? Stop!" I hiss, batting his gun barrel down.

"Don't touch my gun!" Boone hisses back. "I thought you wanted me to take the shot!"

"A shot at _what_? No-- I was trying to show you it's a nightkin using a Stealth Boy!"

By this time, neither of us are really whispering any more, and we hear a surprised grunt not twenty meters ahead.

"They won't _shut up_ , I'll make them be quiet," growls a low voice. "Always screaming, I'll put a stop to it."

I panic at first, thinking the voice is talking to us... but the shimmering doesn't grow closer, it just moves right by us and keeps going towards town.

"Where do you think it's going?" Boone asks. "What kinds of weapons do nightkin have?"

"I don't know how we'd be able to tell that when it's stealthed," I say, shrugging.

Then I flinch from the sudden sound of gunfire as the nightkin shoots one of the Brahmin in the McBride's cattle pen, causing it to bray in pain for a few agonizing moments before it falls silent in death.

"What the fuck--" I'm flabbergasted.

Snatches of speech come back to me from stuff I've heard around town recently, including No-Bark Noonan saying "they say there's too many bullet holes, but I know what it was: an invisible chupacabra."

I'd written the guy off as a racist loon at the time, but now I kind of get why he'd think that under the circumstances if he'd never seen or heard of a Stealth Boy.

"Let's get out of here," Boone says tersely, but I'm rooted to the spot.  
  
"Wait... wait, look, it's leaving now," I say, watching the nightkin retreat.

"It's coming back towards us," Boone says in warning.

"It doesn't care about us," I say slowly, wanting to test my theory.

If the rumors are true then the cattle are this nightkin's target, not anyone else.

"What?"

"Be quiet!"

Blessedly, Boone follows my lead and as the nightkin comes back our way, we crouch and stay silent. I've always been good at sneaking around and pickpocketing; I've had to rely on it both to survive and to do some of my courier jobs in the past.

Now I wait for just the right moment to try and grab onto the shimmering and hope that I've aimed correctly... my hand touches something hard covered by a layer of fabric-- a pocket-- and I have to fight down my instinct to vocalize my surprise.

The nightkin doesn't notice me, but it's moving away already-- I don't have time-- ! My fingers close around something square and hard in the pocket I've found, and I pull it out just as the nightkin whirls around and mutters something in my direction.

"Sneaky sneaks be grateful it's night time," it hisses, looking right at me where I'm hiding behind a bush. "Me sleepy now. Time to sleep."

Then it continues to walk away, and I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding.

"What the fuck was that?" Boone asks as soon as the shimmering has retreated to a safe distance. "You didn't take its gun?!"

"No, but look," I say, turning on my Pip Boy flashlight to show Boone what I did take: a holotape labeled "the Screams of Brahmin" in jagged, shaky handwriting.

"What the fuck," Boone mutters, shaking his head.

"I agree," I sigh, "Let's figure this shit out tomorrow, my brain is fried. I can't process this."

Then I hear raised voices coming from the McBride house, and we instinctively move closer.

"Not _again_ ," the Brahmin farmer groans in dismay, sinking to his knees next to his dead animal.

"Farmer McBride?" I ask as we walk up to the cattle fence. "Are you all right?"

"No I'm not all right, look at this! Daisy's dead!" the farmer moans, clearly beside himself with his upset.

"This has been happening every night for a week. At this rate I'm sunk, I've already lost more than half my herd."

"Dusty? Who are you talking to out there?" A woman calls from the front door of the ranch house.

"Just some prospectors from the hotel, Alice, go back in the house. I don't want you to see Daisy like this."

"Not Daisy," Alice whimpers as she dutifully retreats inside.

"Maybe we should come back another time? I might be able to help you," I offer, but Dusty doesn't want to hear it right now.

"If you're just gonna gawk like that bum No-Bark does, get outta here!" he snaps, and Boone and I exchange a look and decide to take our leave.

"Phew," I sigh as soon as we're back at the Dino Dee-Lite courtyard. "That was a mess back there."

"I'll say," agrees Boone. "I have no idea what the fuck just happened."

"I think it has something to do with this," I say, holding the holotape up and twiddling it between my fingers. "I want to find a way to play it tomorrow."

"Good luck with that," Boone says, but he's being more serious than sarcastic and I appreciate that.

"Thanks. Yikes, look at the time," I say while glancing at my Pip Boy-- it's after midnight. "I'm beat. Goodnight, Boone."

"Goodnight, Casey." Boone turns towards his room, and only hesitates a moment before adding "See you in the morning."

"See you in the morning," I reply, smiling to myself all the way back up to my room.

\--

I don't wake up until sunlight is streaming through the gap in the broken blinds of my hotel room window. Rubbing my face, I check my Pip Boy for the time: it's almost nine. I never get to sleep this late, and for the second morning in a row I wake feeling refreshed.

If only the water here was as good as the NCR outposts... even HELIOS One had decent washrooms that I took full advantage of while spending all day there yesterday. But Novac isn't on the power grid just yet, and I grimace as I have to wash up with freezing cold, slightly-radiated water that practically trickles out of rusted old well pipes again. The communal showers at the Mojave Outpost weren't anything fancy, but at least they had decent enough pressure to easily and quickly wash up clean. And we could get hot water... I miss that luxury already.

As long as you take some Rad-X first though it's not a big deal to be off the grid. People around here do it every day... fresh water out in the wastes is very hard to come by if you're not a bastion of NCR, and what little there is people need for drinking. Kinda morbid that it's easier in the post-apocalypse to get pills to purge rads than water without rads already in it but, here we are.

I decide to go knock on Boone's door and see if he's awake. But I get no response, and I frown as I look around the courtyard. Maybe he's just taking a walk to stretch out or something?

After circling the whole Dino Dee-Lite and not seeing him, I give up and decide to go see Cliff Briscoe up at the Dino Bite Gift Shop.

"Howdy," he says in greeting, and I smile at him.

I like Cliff-- what you see is what you get. He's a nice guy, if a little obsessive. Those dino toys are _not_ worth the prices he charges.

"How's it going, Cliff? I was wondering if you knew where I could find a portable holotape tape player around here," I say, pulling out the tape and plunking it down on the counter.

Cliff picks it up to inspect it, his eyes widening in surprise. "The Screams of Brahmin? What is this, Casey? Some kind of new band of yours?" he teases.

"I wish," I say honestly. "No, it's far more bizarre." And I fill him in on the situation with the suspected nightkin.

"So _that's_ who's been shooting Alice and Dusty's cattle? I'd like to wring that pesky mutant's neck," Cliff growls, and I arch an eyebrow seeing such aggression from him.

"Whoa, since when are you a vigilante Cliff? I thought you left that stuff to the vagrant wanderers like me."

"I usually do, but anyone who messes with Alice is no friend of mine," Cliff says in such a somber tone that immediately makes me half suspect there's something going on between the two of them.

"Ah... so you're sweet on her," I tease, and Cliff chuckles.

No one else is in the shop but the two of us, but he still lowers his voice and leans in over the counter towards me before continuing as if he's telling me some big secret.

"Why lie about it? Everyone around seems to know except Dusty, and he and I don't chat much," he admits, and my mouth falls open.

"Cliff I was _joking_. You're really with Alice McBride?"

"Have been for years now," Cliff says with a proud smirk.

"She comes over to my hotel room whenever Dusty's busy with the Brahmin, usually once or twice a week now. I'd have her over every day if she'd allow it, but she says she can't leave Dusty what with this cattle fiasco."

"...So she _would_ leave him if the fiasco were to be settled?"

Cliff shrugs. "Who am I to know what a woman will do when a situation changes? That's just what she tells me, man. Last year she couldn't leave Dusty because of the drought. The year before, it was the radscorps. The year before it was-- well, you get the picture."

"Oh, Cliff," I say, feeling sorry for the guy despite him contributing to another man's sadness.

"That's rough buddy. I hope she doesn't keep stringing you along."

"I don't really mind one way or another kid," Cliff sighs, leaning back in his chair.

"You get to my age out here in the wasteland and any company is better than being alone, even if it's only part-time."

He reaches down and pulls a bulky, ancient-looking piece of tech out from underneath the counter.

"A holotape player!" I gasp in surprise. "But-- I don't have the caps to pay you for this, Cliff."

Audio players of any kind are rare in the wasteland, as with any pre-war tech or the post-war emulations of it, and this is likely worth at least a few hundred caps.

"Are you kidding? You get anything you want in the Dino Bite for free now," Cliff chuckles.

"Thanks to you offing that traitor Jeannie May, now nobody has to pay her hotel rent any more and people actually spend their caps here sometimes. No one wants the damn Dinky toys still, but at least it's something."

"Thanks Cliff," I say gratefully as I take the tape player. "I'll figure out this Brahmin thing, but you'll need more luck with Alice it seems."

Cliff's dry chuckle follows me out of the shop.

\--

I'm so pleased with the acquisition of the holotape player that I don't notice Boone waiting outside my room again, and I startle at the top of the steps.

"Geez, you really need to look where you're walking more," Boone says with a smirk.

"Look what Cliff gave me!" I say excitedly, not bothering to validate Boone's accurate assessment.

"We can listen to the tape on this if I can just find the right way to power it, but I think fission batteries will work. Most post-war stuff is made for those."

"This looks so ancient it might be pre-war," Boone muses as I go into my room and he follows me.

"Well in that case, at least I didn't pay any money for this. You weren't the only one squeezed by Jeannie May in this town, and people appreciate you taking her out."

"Hm." Boone falls silent as he watches me fiddle around with the holotape player for over an hour.

The fission batteries I have in my toolkit _don't_ work but, I realize that with some quick part refittings that I can get it to hook up directly to a generator instead, so I do that.

"Where'd you learn to do all this?" Boone asks at one point while watching me work.

"Had an apprenticeship back in New Vegas when I was around your age," I answer without looking up.

"With the Van Graffs. Gloria originally hired me as a bodyguard, but I was so inquisitive about their tech that they started letting me learn how to repair stuff. A lot of the knowledge applies universally, just knowing how tinker with generator output engines and how to recharge batteries with spare equipment. So the more I learned, the more I messed around, and when I was in Primm looking for answers about who tried to kill me, I found this one," I say with a gesture to ED-E and a fond smile.

"Nash said if I could repair the Eyebot I could keep it, and I saw it as a challenge. Took me days of trial and error, and broke several of my tools, but it was very worth it."

"You didn't give up," Boone says with a nod. "You're very dedicated, Casey."

I duck my head, not knowing how to take that compliment.

"I think this should do it," I say after clearing my throat a few minutes later, popping the holotape into the player and pressing play.

At first the recording is simply gibberish. It's definitely a nightkin speaking, but I only know that because I know what I heard and saw last night. It's the same voice.

But then Boone and I both startle as the words suddenly get much more lucid and enunciated.

"The Brahmin _scream_ at night and I cannot _sleep_! Forgive me, I must silence them... I must silence them so I can sleep. When I close my eyes, they are screaming. Forgive me, forgive me. I have not slept. I have not found rest. I have not found peace because these _Brahmin_ keep _screaming_!"

Then it trails off into incomprehensible wailing once more.

When the tape ends and starts clicking, I press Pause. In the awkward silence that follows my stomach decides to growl quite loudly.

"Casey. You skipped breakfast again," Boone asserts rather than asks, knowing the answer.

"Sorry, got too excited," I say sheepishly. "You weren't in your room this morning so I went to see Cliff and forgot."

"Well let's relocate downstairs. I'll make us some food while you figure out that creepy tape."

\--

As we're finishing eating Boone lets me know that he'd stopped by the McBride house earlier this morning to smooth things over with Dusty and Alice.

"Mr. McBride admitted that he could use some help with this, and he and Alice said to come back around midnight tonight if we want to try and stop the Brahmin killer because it always happens at the same time. I didn't mention the tape, in case you never found a way to play it."

"That's fair... I'm not sure they'll care one way or another anyway," I sigh.

"No-Bark Noonan may be written off as the village conspiracy theorist, but he says what they're all thinking. They want that nightkin dead because they think it's some kind of otherworldly monster, but it's just a sick being like the rest of us trying to survive in this hellscape."

"How can you be so sure?" Boone asks as he gathers up the dishes. "What if it's got a score to settle? It might not like being asked to leave."

"It just wants a place to rest," I say sadly, drumming my fingers on the table as I watch Boone do the dishes in the sink with his back to me.

"If it won't listen, well then, maybe we'll have to be more forceful. But I think I have an idea of what to say to this nightkin. Have you ever heard of Jacobstown?"

"Barely," Boone says as he scrubs. "I never went that far Northwest. NCR steer clear of it mostly because of all the mutants. Too dangerous."

"But that's my point Boone, super mutants _aren't_ dangerous. That nightkin could have wiped us both out last night and it didn't. Why? Because it's not killing for killing's sake. It just is sick and thinks these Brahmin are the source of its illness."

"So what, you're just gonna tell it to go to Jacobstown? What if it doesn't like that idea?"

"...I don't know. But it's the only idea I have... I'm all ears for a better one, Boone."

Boone sighs slowly as he rinses the dishes off and sets them on the rack to drip-dry.

"I never said your idea was bad Case, just wondering what your back-up plan is so I can be on the same page."

"Well, I guess my back-up plan is you bringing a knife?"

"Fair enough."

\--

At 23:45-- just fifteen minutes before midnight-- Boone knocks on my door. We've spent most of the day together, but he'd wanted to lay down for a brief nap to get some shuteye before we went to the McBride ranch.

I should have done the same, and I'd tried for a little while, but after tossing and turning for an hour I'd given up and started reading one of the books in here-- it's just a cookbook, but anything to read nowadays is precious. I'm already exhausted, but I try not to show it as I get up to answer the door.

"Ready?" I ask, and Boone nods.

We walk down the road to the McBride house; it's a short walk from the hotel. Novac isn't a big town.

"Should we stay by the cattle you think, or try to meet the nightkin out west more?"

"The further out the better I'd say," Boone suggests.

We advance out west past the house, and past the town limits of Novac. This is the way we were coming back last night because I'd strayed a little in my gloating after HELIOS One.

"It was right around here-- look!" I say, grabbing Boone's arm and pointing.

"I see it," he says, sounding uneasy... probably because I'd insisted that he _not_ bring his sniper rifle out tonight, and ED-E is back in my room again.

But I don't want this nightkin to get the wrong idea, and after bracing myself with a deep breath I clear my throat and walk right up to it.

"Nightkin, I know you are tired, I'm tired too," I begin, and then realize that the shimmering lump merely moves around me and advances further.

"Hey! Wait, don't keep going, please-- can I talk with you?"

No response.

"I listened to your tape!" I try desperately.

The nightkin still doesn't stop advancing on the Brahmin pen; I pull out the holotape from my pocket and wave it in front of me.

"See? It's your tape, I took it from you and I'm sorry! But I want to talk with you about this recording, can't we go somewhere and talk about it? I know you're tired, I want to help you!"

"...Help...? Me...?" Finally the low, gravelly voice is back, and it's laughing-- but the nightkin hasn't stopped, and is growing closer than ever to the farm.

"You cannot help me, sneaky sneaks. You cannot even help yourself."

 _Wow, roasted by a super mutant._ My ego certainly takes a hit from that, but I don't have time to wallow.

"You're right," I say, hoping Boone isn't reading into this. "But I really do want to help you. Do you know where Jacobstown is?"

I gasp in shock as the nightkin finally stops; suddenly the deep voice seems to be all around me and right in my ear at the same time.

"How you know about Jacobstown," it growls, and I hold up my hands in a gesture of surrender.

"I-I just heard it was a place where mutants, a-and people, and ghouls all live together in harmony... like Mean-Son-Of-A-Bitch in Westside, how they all love him, but with lots more mutants..."

"I lived in Jacobstown," the nightkin says slowly, as if remembering something it had forgotten.

"Yeah? Maybe you'd like to-- go back home?"

"Home," the nightkin says softly, sounding _so_ tired.

"Yeah... I think they'd like to see you there again. Wouldn't it be nice to go home for a while?"

"NCR threatened us," the nightkin growls, and I notice Boone tense nearby. "Not safe there now."

"No... I know it's safe," I say, doing my best to be reassuring. "The NCR will never take Jacobstown. Your home is safe, nightkin... they need you there."

The nightkin stands silent for such a long time that I wonder if it's fallen asleep, but then suddenly it begins lumbering away. In the opposite direction of the McBride farm, towards the Northwest.

"It's working!" I whisper excitedly to Boone. "Look, it's going away!"

"Keep my tape, sneaky sneaks," the nightkin sighs as it moves away in the dark. "Come see me in Jacobstown sometime."

"I will," I call out, waving. "I will! Safe travels!"

We watch the shimmering form get smaller and smaller, until finally it disappears out of sight behind some boulders.

"You did it, Casey," Boone says in a clearly impressed tone.

This is the second time in two days he's said that-- this is going to go to my head.

"I only hope I was right about Jacobstown still being safe. Let's go give the McBrides the good news," I say, leading the way back to the house.

Of course Dusty and Alice are extremely grateful to not have to deal with another dead Brahmin tonight, but my explanation leaves them a bit mystified.

"So you just... asked it to go away?" Alice asks, sounding dubious.

"I told it to go home. I don't think it's going to come back, but if it does let me know. I'm going to be staying here a couple more nights just to make sure it's gone."

"Thank you Casey," Dusty says as he reaches out his hand to shake mine firmly. "And again, sorry about snappin' at you before. You're welcome here anytime."

When we get back to the hotel, Boone clears his throat as I'm about to take the stairs up to my room.

"So. You just gonna go up to bed without celebrating again then?"

"...I could be persuaded to stay up for a little while longer. What did you have in mind?" I ask, my hand hovering over the stair railing.

"Got a flask of whiskey in my room we could split," Boone says with a gesture towards his door. "If you want."

"I do want that," I say, smiling at Boone as we fall in step to cross the courtyard.

And as I'm sitting on his couch an hour later, I don't mind that I'm tired from the late night. It feels nice to be buzzed and watch Boone smile at me, the lines in his face relaxing as he laughs and tells me stories...

I realize that I'm happy.

**Author's Note:**

> i crave feedback (and there will be more, idk where all this is coming from but there will definitely be more)


End file.
